Tag Archives: Week In Pictures

It’s been one of those weeks — you know, the ones where you barely leave the house?! Even as recently as a year ago, I used to completely dread weeks like this but after doing so much traveling (Austin, Cannon Beach, Santorini, Mykonos, London and New York in the last month and a half alone), I actually look forward to waking up and having to be absolutely nowhere.

While I’ve been home, there hasn’t actually been any downtime though. I spent the week revamping my digital portfolio and clocking in at close to 25 projects, there was a lot to get through. Though I’ve shared a majority of the projects before and it all worked perfectly fine, I’ve always felt that “good enough just isn’t good enough.” I wanted everything to be larger in scale, to show more uses and to have a more consistent, polished feel. And, though it took 4 straight 12 hour days to get through, it feels so good to be done! I’ll share the results next week.

September is a good month around here — my birthday was the 14th, Joey’s is the 24th and sandwiched in between was our anniversary on the 17th. We like to knock everything out at once! Of course, no anniversary is complete without a few silly photobooth rounds after a few celebratory drinks. Cheers to three years!

On Monday, the travel starts up again. I head off to LA for some client meetings and in preparation, I’ve been digging through 10 years of magazine tears for an editorial project I’m going to be working on. I must have 500 pages saved in my flat files and having those physical references is so valuable. For as long as I live, I will continue investing in books and magazines!

And with that, I’m signing off to conquer a big to-do list before my LA trip. Have an amazing weekend, everyone. I’ll be back next week to share the inside scoop of what I’ve been working on business-wise behind the scenes. xo

I’d already been to London once before, back in January. But let’s be honest — going to Europe in the dead of winter wasn’t the best idea. While I really wanted to appreciate London at that time, I was too sick and too cold to really take it all in. I spent more time resting up in our apartment and avoiding the snow than exploring. This time, with a bit more experience, Kat, Gala and I planned our trip out much better and even though we had less days off, we managed to squeeze a ton of fun stuff in.

We chose to stay in Shepherd’s Bush because we found a great art deco apartment just a few minute walk from both the tube and Westfield. Westfield is a luxury shopping mall with a huge selection of restaurants and we knew that after long days of teaching, we could tuck away into dinner and make it back home with very little effort.

But, back to our apartment — I loved it. Yes, it was convenient and affordable but the real selling point was this completely over the top wallpaper. The rest of the place was expertly curated as well. I could have easily moved in and not changed a thing with the decor (and I’m picky as hell).

This tray, complete with a quirky set of salt and pepper shakers in our kitchen window made me smile.

We even had a tiny little balcony overlooking the neighborhood. Cute, right?

The reason we were in London was to teach two back-to-back Blogcademy workshops. Getting off a plane from Greece last Wednesday night and rolling with very little sleep right into a 6 a.m. alarm Thursday morning was a rude awakening but once we got to our venue, Curtain Road Studios, the excitement started to flow.

This time around, we had tons of beautiful flower arrangements by WildAbout Flowers that really livened up the space.

One of our attendees, Fifi Scarlett handmade these amazing masks and I took full advantage of getting some photos in one during our break.

Every morning, on our walk to class, we passed by this Fornasetti display.

After our last night of teaching, we went out to Pizza East in Shoreditch. I loved the rustic tables, handwritten signs and of course, the tasty pizza selection.

On Monday, our only free day in London, we hit the city hard — but my favorite stop is always Liberty, a department store that was founded in 1875. Their stationery section is off the hook.

After Liberty, we stopped by Sketch. I’d been obsessed with the place since it opened its doors 10 years ago and to finally see it in person was a dream — I have a full post coming next week about the experience but if you’re visiting London, put this restaurant at the top of your list!

London was a blast but I wasn’t quite ready to head home yet! On Tuesday, Gala and I boarded Virgin Atlantic, bound for New York. I try to visit my friend Bianca at least once a year and it was the perfect time to tack on a few more days in one of my favorite cities.

Within two hours of landing in New York, I was ready to head out to a new bar, The Dead Rabbit in the Financial District. This place (and its drink selection) was way too good to sum up here so expect a full review soon!

Whenever I’m in Soho, I swing by Dean & DeLuca. They have the best food, flowers, and well…the best everything.

Bianca’s apartment is on Wall Street so every time I walk to the subway, I get to pass by this handsome lad.

I’m now back in Portland, attempting to stay awake and ignore my jet lag while trying to remember what it’s like to not live out of a suitcase. What a whirlwind it’s been. And, tomorrow’s my birthday! Woohoo!

Thanks for following along with my adventures — have a great weekend, everyone! xo

Imagine my surprise when I came downstairs a few mornings ago…and our black bear, Smokey was all dressed up! I actually kinda like the apron on him.

Over the weekend, my cousin Matt picked me up for a little spin around town — he always has the best dashboard decor! He actually came over because my brother called him to let him know that we had a pile of firewood for him. One little misunderstanding: he thought he’d said FIREWORKS! There was definitely some disappointment. 😉

It’s always a pleasure to visit Keegan Meegan to pick up a client order. More on this project later — I want her to see everything in person before I share — but it was pretty cool to see the outcome since each piece of her suite features black edges and a ruler (she’s a dress shirt designer).

I just did a mini shoot of my surroundings for an upcoming project release in September. Orange is where it’s at for me these days.

OSI did such an awesome job on our latest batch of custom totes! I have stacks of report cards, posters and a big ol’ suitcase right behind me all ready to go. And with that, I’m off to finish packing and getting ready for Joey and Rocky’s arrival home tonight. They were in LA all week for a friend’s movie premiere and I sure missed them like crazy.

My week got a little sunnier when a surprise package from my friends at Poppin showed up. I already had most of their yellow office gear so these pens are a welcome addition. I’ve also been freshening up my office and taping up favorite mementos everywhere.

This week I found some great inspiration lurking in a paper sample book and the new issue of Marie Claire. I’m moving onto a photography book project soon with close to double the pages of anything I’ve ever done so I’m in full-on research mode.

Today I did a test print of Rock n Roll Bride magazine to do one last check before we send it off to print and it’s always a scary moment! But I’m really happy with the way everything looks outside of the screen. A welcome relief! Haha.

This week it occurred to me that I never shared our remodeled basement with you. Part of the reason is because it just felt a bit unfinished — definitely barren and lacking in personality. I’ve vowed to get back to work and shake it up into top form before the end of the year. Our house has been feeling really neglected lately and it’s time to recommit to getting it into shape.

In other news, I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of the slow load times on my site lately — it’s been super frustrating, especially since I just upgraded my server. We finally figured out the issue today and I’m hoping to have a fix in place by next week. Thanks for sticking around, I know how annoying it can be!

Have a great weekend, everyone. I’ll be holed up, formatting a whole lot of Austin Blogcademy report cards but it’s always super fun discovering new blogs. Only two weeks to go till Texas! Can’t wait.

Did you have a good week? Mine was very, very full and I’m feeling pretty wiped out. But there’s lots of good stuff in motion between freelance projects, Blogcademy developments and personal branding that will be rolling out over the next few months — change is both exciting and exhausting and I’m accepting of that.

I’ve never really shown full shots of our living room because even after three years, it’s never felt finished. With white walls and black furniture, it still needs some oomph. Some color. Some drama! Over the weekend, I spotted these flowers at IKEA (yes, you heard that right!) and just this little change has made such a difference. Baby steps.

I just visited the Hotel Modera and really, really enjoyed the styling of their lobby. So chic! It was actually my first time there and I have nothing but good things to say.

Poppin is where it’s at if you’re looking for color coordinated office accessories. I had a credit sitting around on my desk and pulled the trigger on scissors and a tray that matches the rest of my setup.

It’s such a blogger cliché to take photos in public restrooms! Have you ever done the same? Or am I just a big weirdo? This is pretty much my default “I’m in a hurry outfit.” Joey bought be that neon Zara sweater two years ago as a birthday gift so it’s really special to me. I wear those H&M jumbo ball necklaces almost every day — I have both the gold and silver. And the Rick Owens jacket was a lucky find on Ebay a few years back.

Last night I met my friend who works at a screen print shop to review designs for the Blogcademy LA and PDX totes and to my surprise, she’d even prepped a piece of fabric with all the turquoise Pantone swatches! That’s some serious service right there! So excited to send these to print — the custom London designs were a huge hit so we’re moving forward with unique designs for every city. I feel that those personalized touches are so important.

Nice to meet you!

I'm Shauna, a graphic designer and entrepreneur. I spend my days as the Creative Director of Branch, a boutique design studio. This is my personal blog, which has been going strong since 2007. I'm obsessed with shoes, squirrels and traveling. Read more…

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